Administrative Appeals Tribunal Decisions

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) is an independent body that can review decisions Innovation and Science Australia makes about R&D Tax Incentive applications and registrations.

Typically, the AAT will only be asked to review a decision after the department conducts an internal review of the decision and the affected party remains unsatisfied.

When conducting reviews, the AAT makes decisions about the interpretation and application of the legislation that governs the R&D Tax Incentive. It is important for programme participants and their advisers to understand the AAT decisions that have been made in relation to the R&D Tax Incentive programme because they can provide useful interpretive guidance.

AAT decision under the R&D Tax Concession in a production mining environment that the claimed:

modification and testing of on an existing density media sampling prototype device were only tinkering around the edge, and were not conducted for the purpose of acquiring new knowledge

activities to trial a refined waste oil and diesel mix were not conducted in a systematic manner, did not involve innovation or high levels of technical risk, and were not conducted to acquire new knowledge

activities to design new excavator buckets were not systematic, experimental or investigative.

AAT decision reinforced the need for businesses that claim the R&D Tax Incentive to keep good records of their R&D expenditure. This case was in relation to a registration under the R&D Tax Concession.

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